Christy O'Connor: Dr Crokes' Munster win-rate trumps everyone else
Johnny Buckley and Dr. Crokes players celebrate with the cup after the 2016 Munster Club SFC final victory against The Nire. Picture: ©INPHO/Cathal Noonan
A while back, someone in the Dr Crokes squad came across a photograph from the 2017 All-Ireland club final, not of the match where Crokes beat Slaughtneil, but of the U12 game played at half-time. They still smile about it. Seven years on, and some of the older players from that All-Ireland winning panel are regularly reminded of their age by a raft of those young players who are now their teammates.
The batch which has infused the panel with new blood and renewed vigour is now on an odyssey that was a well-worn trail for Crokes for most of the last decade, when Munster finals were just part of the calendar for the Killarney club. As soon as the Bishop Moynihan Cup was secured, it was almost taken as a fait accompli that Crokes’ name would be back on the O’Connor Cup again. Why? Because this is what Crokes do in Munster.
At the outset of the year, few would have predicted them being back in this position. Crokes hadn’t won a Kerry title since 2018, or been in a final since 2019. They couldn’t make it out of a group of four in last year’s championship, while they were hammered by Dingle in the 2022 quarter-final. The narrative centred more on being competitive again than winning Kerry titles.
Yet Crokes never think that way. “Look, my aspiration at the start of this year was to go out and win an All-Ireland club,” said Brian Looney after Crokes defeated Castlehaven in the Munster quarter-final. “There was a long road to get to there, but you have to set yourself goals of that nature to drive yourself on.”
Once the machine cranked up and the road began to stretch out ahead of them, Crokes were back on a familiar route, winning a treble in Kerry - the county and club championships, as well as the Division 1 league title. Winning Munster was just the logical next step.
Nemo Rangers will always be the standard, with 17 Munster titles, but Crokes’ record is just as staggering from a win percentage - an 88% success rate in the competition.
Crokes have played 32 games in Munster, winning 28 and drawing one. The three defeats were the 2010 and 2017 Munster finals to Nemo, and the 1992 semi-final to an O’Donovan Rossa side that went on to win the All-Ireland.
Some clubs did stare them down; Crokes only won the 1990 final against Clonmel Commercials after extra-time in a replay in Fermoy.
Titles define greatness, which is why Nemo’s 17 wins tower above everyone, but Crokes’ win rate towers above every other club that has won three or more provincial titles.
Crossmaglen Rangers were a near unbeatable powerhouse in Ulster for almost two decades but their win rate in Ulster has dropped off to 73% since their first win, and 67% overall.
The comparative competitiveness between Ulster and Munster does have to be taken into consideration. Some other clubs have been incredibly successful, but when the overall data is assessed right across the provinces, the one constant is Crokes.
They’ll expect that 88% success rate to be marginally higher after Sunday.
In his autobiography, , former Tyrone footballer Cathal McCarron tried to make some sense of Tyrone’s dire record in the Ulster club football championship. McCarron won three county titles with Dromore between 2007-‘2011 but the only game they won in the province during that time was against Ballinderry, after a replay, in 2007. Dromore did go close in the semi-final but Crossmaglen beat them by one point.
They lost to Clontibret in 2009 and Mayobridge in 2011. McCarron was gone by the time Dromore appeared in Ulster again in 2021, but the result was the same; Derrygonnelly beat them after extra-time by six points.
That result followed a similar pattern but McCarron was convinced as to why the pattern was continually repeated. “The Tyrone senior championship is probably the most physical and draining in Ireland,” he wrote.
“Only one club – Errigal Ciarán – has won an Ulster club title, but that’s more down to the conditions than the standard. With everyone beating the shit out of each other, the county champions are often hardly able to walk by the time the provincial championship comes around.”
Before Trillick played Crossmaglen in last year’s quarter-final, Trillick manager Jody Gormley agreed with McCarron’s point. “The Tyrone championship is hard fought, hard won and hard celebrated,” said Gormley. “I do think that does have an impact.”
Trillick could never look beyond their next game, only beating Loughmacrory on penalties in round one, before scraping past Edendork by one point in the quarter-final, and needing extra-time to edge past Errigal Ciarán in the final.
Errigal had to negotiate their way through a similarly testing route this year; after beating Pomeroy by three points, and Clonoe after a replay, Errigal had one point to spare in both the semi-final and final against Killyclogher and Trillick.
With seven different winners in the last 12 years, and no team having retained the title since 2005, Tyrone haven’t produced the serial winners of other counties that are regularly accustomed to the provincial championships. Errigal’s opponents in Sunday’s Ulster final, Kilcoo, have won 12 of the last 13 Down championships.
Prior to this year, Kilcoo had won more Ulster championship games (17) in the last 12 years than Tyrone clubs had won (16) in the last 21 seasons. Tyrone clubs had failed to win a game Ulster in ten of those 21 seasons.
Sunday is Kilcoo’s sixth Ulster final in 12 years while, prior to this year, only one Tyrone club, Omagh St Enda’s in 2014, had contested a final since Errigal were Ulster champions in 2002. Errigal are the only Tyrone side to have won a provincial title, having also bagged one in 1993, while Tyrone clubs have only contested five more finals; Ardboe (1972), Trillick (1974), Coalisland (1989) and Errigal (1997 and 2000).
Today is Errigal Ciarán’s fifth provincial final, which is why they are royalty in Tyrone when it comes to Ulster. Can they win a third title now? If any Tyrone team can win Ulster, Errigal can.
When it comes to regrets for Tipperary club football, the dying moments of the 2016 All-Ireland club semi-final is right up there. After 60 minutes, Clonmel Commercials led Ballyboden St Enda’s by three points. The Dublin side were already down to 14 men but Ballyboden landed three points in additional time, with the equaliser from Darragh Nelson coming just on the final whistle.
Clonmel were mentally and physically spent, failing to score in extra-time as Ballyboden pushed on to win by five points. The pain was all the more acute for Clonmel a few weeks later when they saw Ballyboden beat Castlebar Mitchels in the final by 13 points.
Clonmel still harbour regrets over that defeat. On the other hand, they inflicted a similar level of torture on Nemo Rangers in the Munster final the previous December, when a Michael Quinlivan injury-time goal saw Commercials win by one point.
That secured a first, and only, senior title for a Tipp club. No other side in the province has lost as many Munster finals (5) as Commercials, while Fethard and Moyle Rovers also lost two finals, and Loughmore were beaten by UCC in their only final appearance in 1973.
Interestingly, of the ten finals Tipp clubs have lost, they only lost three to Kerry sides; Laune Rangers beat Moyle Rovers in 1995, Dr Crokes edged past Clonmel in 1990, while East Kerry also beat Commercials in 1965.
At least it’s not a Cork club in the final, with Cork sides having beaten Tipp sides in six finals. For a Loughmore side rank outsiders against Crokes, they’ll take any positives going.
